Sasquatch! Festival – Sunday 5/29/11 – The Gorge Amphitheatre

Sunday morning started off much like Saturday, with a whiskey and coke. We battled wind the night before and made it through unscathed, but Sunday night would be an entirely different beast. The shows Sunday were great, possibly the best day musically, but the aftermath was about as lame as it gets. Read on….

We had a tough decision to make in the afternoon, and it was unfortunate, but we decided to stay in the campground, rest-up (much needed!) and then prefunk of course, instead of checking out Reggie Watts in the comedy stage early in the day. The sound issues the day before for the Trailer Park Boys had an affect on this decision as well, as did not wanting to pay $9 for beers all night.

Cold War Kids was the first act we were able to see, and they were decent. They had a pretty perfect time slot for them, before the big three Sunday night, and had many of the crowd on their feet. They played the one song of theirs I know, Hang Me Up to Dry, so that is all I really needed. A decent, fun little set. After the Kids we saw a couple Das Racist and Archers of Loaf tunes on the side stages, on our way to get ready for Flogging Mollys set to really kick off the night.

I just want to say that I thought Flogging Molly was amazing. We started the set up on the hill which we quickly discovered was a bad decision. Instead, we made our way down to the floor to get much closer to the action. Upon running into our Calgary campground neighbor friends, we watched the rest of the set with big grins on our faces. Not even when I was informed puke was running on my bag, which I have on video (check it out!), did I have a bad time. This set was one of the more fun ones with a rowdy crowd adding to the show. Once the set was over we decided to get a little closer on the floor for the next act, one I was pumped for, The Flaming Lips.

Wayne Coyne and company are a bunch of weirdos! The backdrop videos and the face camera and all the antics are just bizarre, but I like em! The Gorge got one of the Lips’ “Soft Bulletin” shows, and also a fun rendition of Happy Birthday for the 10th Anniversary of the Festival. A birthday cake made from the TV crew Ace of Cakes was brought our during the song, but it didn’t take long for Wayne to break it apart and throw it into the crowd. The only problem is this was all done mid set, a seemingly very odd placement. Wayne talks a lot too, and I left this set thinking that if Wayne would just shut up and play we could’ve seen a few more songs. A nice tribute to Elliott Smith brought the tears out of Wayne, and a few in the crowd (Phishbeard!! Hahaha). They ended the show with Feeling Yourself Disintegrate.

After the Lips we were in for what I think could be the single best set of the weekend, at least for me. I loved the Foo Fighters and J. Mascis sets, and Chromeo is a major ‘Best of’ contender, but to me Modest Mouse made me feel different from the others. I had EXPECTED to have a good time at the Foo, Chromeo etc. I had ZERO expectations for Modest Mouse and they were one of the few bands over the weekend that turned me into a fan. Opening with Shit Luck was a treat and after that we were in store for almost 2 hours of great. I remember This Devils Workday, Here it Comes, Bukowski, Lampshades on Fire (new song I think) and more all being top notch. Like I said, I was waiting for a band all weekend to turn me into a fan and this is the best example of that.

I left Modest Mouse feeling great. It can take awhile to get from the venue to the campground, so we were able to feel great for about an hour before we got back “home” and saw the damage. Some complete fucking asshole(s?) decided to vandalize or area of the campground, breaking into cars and tents and causing all kinds of damage. Phishbeards tent was cut open and his cooler dumped out inside. Others around us had their ipods and cell phones stolen, among other things. Why some dicks want to ruin the times of others at something as fun as Sasquatch! is something that I will never understand.

We still had some post show beers, but the party certainly wasn’t the same as the couple of nights before.

One last day of fun awaits.

Random Notes:

Flogging Molly > The Flaming Lips > Modest Mouse was one of the funnest 1-2-3 combos I have seen.

Really bummed about missing Reggie Watts, sigh.

Lots of people were talking about how good the smaller stage acts were. Some I heard were great but missed were MSTRKRFT, Yeasayer, Flying Lotus, Ratatat, Sam Roberts Band.

Not very much hiphop here at this fest, but Das Racist was pretty sweet!

thenaturalstoner is a Northwestern United States concert going human being who enjoys documenting his experiences. These are not always limited to the concert stage. thenaturalstoner likes his WSU Cougar football and collection of wet wipes as well (try ‘em out instead of toilet paper sometime!).